It must also have earned a passing grade if it's been crash-tested by the government's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which provides a rating that goes up to five stars, or the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), a trade group. To warrant inclusion among the magazine's top options, a vehicle must have scored well in Consumer Reports safety tests, including accident avoidance. Stockburger describes these protections as “saved my bacon” features. Overall, Ford had nine models show up among the worst for reliability, but its small cars had the worst performance of any Blue Oval segment. Not left off the base model, not left off the manual (transmission) model, not left off the sporty model,” which some buyers might choose because they think (usually incorrectly) that they can react better than built-in safety devices, says Jennifer Stockburger, an engineer and director of operations at the Consumer Reports Auto Test Center, a 327-acre facility at Colchester in rural Connecticut. Consumer Reports recommends avoiding the 20 models completely, but reliability issues continued with ’13 and ’14 model years. Those safety features include forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking pedestrian detection typically incorporating an auto-braking feature and blind-spot warning that lets a driver know if another vehicle would be difficult to spot in the mirrors or even with a quick turn of the head. Each model in this year's Top 10 “comes standard with advanced safety features,” the magazine notes. The publication evaluates and tests automobiles to choose its “Top Picks” annually.

En español | The best new cars on the road today offer a multitude of high-tech safety features to help protect drivers and their passengers, according to Consumer Reports magazine.

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